Happy Valentines Day!

Ok to preface this post we have to rewind to this last summer when Molly went to a friends birthday party. They had a "Pinkalicious Tea Party" and Molly was in LOVE! She was so cute and has asked me over and over at least 3 times a week if she could have a tea party. (At the party they took pictures and sent them to us, so cute, but my new printer is lacking a scanner so I will try to get them posted... so cute!

Fast forward to Jan. Kris and I had gone out and were picking up a few things that we needed at Smith's for something. Walking past the dish section I saw a darling pink tea pot. Being as Molly had been begging for months to have a tea party I thought that it would be a good precious and knowing that there is another girl (Stella) that I'm sure will love it as much as Molly and it was totally on sale! So as we were walking around the store I got an amazing idea! I would let Molly have a tea party for her friends on Valentines day. Walking though the store I kept having all kind of thing go though my head of what we could do for this valentines tea party, but when reality hit... I really don't want to entertain 4-5 little girls for a valentine tea party, I mean it's not like it's her birthday! But when I looked at the day and realized that Valentines fell on a Sunday I was thinking "why would I do this for 4-5 little girls, we can just do this with our family for dinner. So I have been planning and preparing for this for over a month now. It's been so fun to plan this and prepare for it for several reasons, I knew my girls would LOVE it, and then I have needed something to look forward to, it's just been so cold and blaaa and I'm just getting a bit stir crazy!

Growing up we always go fun Valentines presents and I have kind of tried to keep that tradition going. I remember when I was little mom and dad putting our gifts on the front porch and then ringing the doorbell and running back in through the garage, I don't know that we ever caught them. As we got older my mom would just put them on our beds. This is the tradition that I have kept going in our house, but as my kids get older maybe we'll have to try the ring and run way. I got Molly breakfast and then while she was in the bathroom put all of her stuff on her bed. Stella, but the time I got her up we didn't have time to put stuff on her bed, we just had to get ready and run. They both got pettiskirts, rain boots (one of my obsessions) and then a bow/ headband. I was going to make the pettiskirts I had the pattern and the material and when I went to have my mom help me make them she called a store that see has seen them at and asked how much they were. They were WAY less then I has seen them anywhere and my mom told me that she would get one for them for their valentine form here so we went to get them and when I was ironing them the night before and it took me more than 3 hours just for the top layer on them, I was really glad that I hadn't made them. I did start them so I will have to keep working on them. When Molly was done in the bathroom I told her to go get dressed in her room. She asked what she should wear and I told her "I don't know. What do you want to wear?" She said her tutu and I told her know so then she said she wanted to wear her blue petti skirt, she was so funny, she kept waking past the skirt without a clue it was there. Finally I had to tell her to look on her bed. She got all wide eyed and was so excited. Funny little girls! And no they didn't wear their rain boots, not to church anyway!

We headed to church witch was a great day! Both of my girls were great and we didn't have a meltdown or have to take them out once. They were quite and oh that made my valentines day! We got home and the girls took naps and I worked on a few other things that I had to get done for the tea party and Kris and I watched a movie. After the movie the girls were up. We make lunch and cleaned up the kitchen for the 3 time that day, I made a huge mess making all of the stuff (The main reason I hate to cook, I hate the mess.) We delivered our valentines. We had dipped oreo's and then put this transfer stuff on them... they were cute and fun to make, that helped add to my mess!

We got home and the girls watched a movie while Kris layed down and tried to get rid of his headache, and I worked on the rest of the stuff for the tea party!

The decore, I found this little netted tent ant worked perfect and then string lights across the ceiling above the tent to give it the low light under the stars feeling! Molly was so cute when she saw all of this she is a true girl!
So I have found my new obsession... tea cups! If anyone finds a yellow one let me know! My favorite thing was the sugar bowl. I put mini marshmellows in and then I found sugar tongs for the marshmellows. The girls both had a new little doll waiting for them at their place on the table .
The food: I made this pink cake, totally nostalgic, this is the cake my grandma would make for me every birthday. The heart shaped sandwiches were BP, Nutella, and banana, then cucumber sandwich, and then just turkey. Lots of fruit. Fruit tarts, these were a labor intensive recipe, but they were yummy, I did mess up but they were still ok. I didn't make the homemade shell, I was done by the time I got the filling done. Then the oreos that we made for Valentines and pink wafer cookies and mini vanilla wafers. The tea was hot chocolate and then the mini marshmallows were fun to put in the hot chocolate.


After I was totally done with the prep We started off our tea party with a game. My mom gave this Fancy Nancy Dress Up game to Molly for Christmas and she LOVES it.

So we played it but instead of dressing up Nancy we dressed up the girls....Kris even scored a new pink and blue new tie, but he hates it and I will probably take it back today!


Now that we were dressed up and ready to go, we headed down stares where they were met by the new friends.


Then it was time to eat and enjoy...






And after we were all stuffed and done...

We went upstairs and I got to read to the girls the Valentines books we have been reading all month. "Amelia Bedelia's First Valentine", "Roses are Pink, Your feet really Stink", "Fancy Nancy Heart to Heart", and last but not least the girls favorite... "Snuggle Puppy" this is such a cute book but you really have to be willing to be goofy! Kris was so nice and got started on the clean up while I was reading and then after I had them ready for bed he helped get them in and then we finished the kitchen together. What an amazing husband to be such a good sport! It was so much fun. Sat night Kris was laughing at me with all of the work I was putting into this and said "I think it's cute how excited you are." I explained that I was really excited but trying not to because the reality of it all is the girls would probably fall apart, be grumpy and fight and things will all just fall apart and not be fun at all ending with me being mad and the girls going to bed without any dinner and screaming... Oh what a pleasant surprise! It was so fun the girls were great and I loved it. At the end of our clean up I found a gift card on the counter... Oh I wish I would have gotten him something else to go with the tie he hated... I still have a birthday to make up for it next week! Any ideas? Happy Valentines Day!